Guard plays host to Cobb ‘commanders’

MARIETTA, Nov. 10, 2009 – Guardsmen at General Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center and Dobbins Air Reserve Base, played host recently to members of the Cobb County Honorary Commanders Class of 2009.

This is the second time the two organizations have gotten together since the Guard’s move to the former Naval Air Station (NAS) Atlanta last year. As a Cobb County Chamber of Commerce program, The Honorary Commanders have been visiting the Guard and Reserves for at least a decade branch to become more familiar with each.

During their day-long tour, the group of 22 area businessmen and community leaders received briefings about the Army and Air Guard’s role – at home and abroad – and had the opportunity to meet, and talk, with Soldiers and Airmen.

“Thank you for what you do every day in supporting our organization, our Guardsmen and the military as a whole,” MG Terry Nesbitt, Georgia’s Adjutant General told the group during their morning briefings. Nesbitt, along with Maj Gen Scott Hammond, commander, Georgia Air National Guard; BG Maria Britt, commanding general, Georgia Army Guard; and COL Mike Scholes, Georgia Guard director of operations they spoke with the group about the Guard’s capabilities, its mission, vision and core values.

Staff members also discussed current and future operations and community support missions.

“I, we, applaud you for taking the time to be here, and for showing interest in who we are and what we do,” Britt told the group. “Thanks to all of you, and everyone else who, ‘gets it.’”

Once the briefings ended at Guard Headquarters, the honorary commanders boarded a bus and visited the 4th Civil Support Team and Georgia’s Counterdrug Task Force.

Later they received presentations on the Air Guard’s StarBase Program, which focuses on elementary students, primarily fifth graders. The goal of this program at Dobbins and at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, is to motivate students to explore science, technology, engineering and math as they continue their education through “hands-on, mind-on” activities.

The group also received information on the Guard’s Youth ChalleNGe (YCA) Program. With a campus at Augusta’s Fort Gordon and Hinesville’s Fort Stewart, YCA’s 22-week curriculum targets Georgia’s at-risk teens, age 16 to 18, through a program that teaches them such things as academics, life-coping skills and responsible citizenship. It helps them achieve their high school equivalency degree.

 Victoria Turkey, director of marketing and corporate relations for Prime Power Services Inc., in Austell, said she and many among her group learned much about the Guard during their visit.

“All of us [Honorary Commanders] are pro-military, and as much as every service member serves our state and our nation, we serve them,”said Turkey, a retired Marine Corps gunnery sergeant. “And as we support the service member, we also support his, or her family members.

“The more we know, , about the military, the better we can assist them all whenever they need us,” she added.